Safe Sanctuaries 2005 NOAA Emergency Response A Presentation

Safe Sanctuaries 2005 NOAA Emergency Response A Presentation to the NOAA Science Advisory Board Dr. Robert Pavia NOAA’s National Ocean Service August 8, 2005 1

Outline • Purpose • Issues • Presentation of Briefing • NOAA Coordination and Views • Desired Outcomes 2

Purpose Respond to the SAB request for “an example of NOAA strategic thinking about disaster planning. ” Provide an opportunity for discussing how the lessons learned relate to possibilities for NOAA strategic disaster planning. 3

Disasters Natural and technological disasters cause an estimated $52 billion in damages each year in the United States National Science and Technology Council, Grand Challenges for Disaster Reduction 4

Issues Organizational – How do we effectively organize to implement National Response Plan requirements and other NOAA disaster response mandates? Technical – What level of integration should we strive for? – How do we identify and establish research priorities? – What are the most critical research to operations issues? Strategic – How do we develop legislative and budget strategies for infrequent, high consequence disasters? 5

Strategic Disaster Preparedness NOAA Responds to Disasters (Emergencies) • • • Extreme Weather Events Oil and Chemical Spills Marine Animal Strandings Vessel Groundings Harmful Algal Blooms Hazards to Navigation Tsunamis National Special Security Coral Disease/ Bleaching Natural Resource Damage 6

Strategic Disaster Preparedness NOAA responds because of our stewardship mandates and our scientific expertise. – Data; – Observations; – Forecasts; and – Technical experts. 7

Safe Sanctuaries 2005 The Scenario: On April 18, 2005 at 2200 EDT, an 800 -foot cargo vessel, M/V Portsmith Trader carrying 1, 200, 000 gallons of fuel ran aground near Elbow Reef in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. The vessel injures both ecological and historical resources, has two releases of oil, and potentially unstable cargo. 8

Safe Sanctuaries 2005 Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary Track of Portsmith Trader Sanctuary Boundary 9

Safe Sanctuaries 2005 Demonstrate NOAA human and technological capabilities and ability to integrate and communicate. Exercise NOAA response plans, protocols and procedures for deploying technical capabilities and expertise. Build relationships that foster long-term collaboration on incident response. Provide training in emergency response, incident command system, Hazwopper and field safety. 10

Safe Sanctuaries 2005 Assets/Technology Sanctuaries Personnel / Vessels People/Organizations Pollution Trajectory Modeling NOS, NWS, NESDIS, NMFS, OMAO, HSPO, GC, PAO Navigation Response Team U. S. Coast Guard, Miami/ Key West Resource Assessment Teams State of Florida, DEP and FWCC Historical Resource Specialists Monroe County Portable Meteorological Station Titan Marine Oceanographic Buoy Hi-Frequency Radar Drift Cards & Dye Pills NOAA Bell 212 Helicopter 11

Safe Sanctuaries 2005 Lessons – Exercises are a decisive opportunity for NOAA to understand operational approach, capabilities, limitations, support requirements, and methods of interactions. – The exercise scale and complexity provided an opportunity for integrating across NOAA programs not possible with a smaller exercise or one lead by another organization. – Safety training, safety protocols, and the on-scene safety organization require a comprehensive and integrated NOAA plan for emergency response. 12

Safe Sanctuaries 2005 Lessons (continued) – Use of real weather and oceanographic conditions significantly contributed to the experience of participants and the lessons learned from the exercise. – Fully exploiting the development of geo-spatial data requires that NOAA programs develop or adopt common standards, data structures, data interchange, and data display protocols. 13

Safe Sanctuaries 2005 14

Strategic Disaster Preparedness Federal Context – National Science and Technology Council: Grand Challenges for Disaster Reduction – National Response Plan/National Incident Management System – GEOSS (IOOS) 15

Strategic Disaster Preparedness Linkages to IOOS – Identify observing system requirements and gaps for emergency response operations; – Develop rapid deployment capabilities to supplement the national backbone; – Designate National Marine Sanctuaries as sentinel sites; – Integrate data streams across disciplines, institutions, time scales, and locations; – Couple operational models with observations, develop ensemble models; and – Develop a Common Operational Picture for environmental conditions. 16

Strategic Disaster Preparedness The NOAA Homeland Security Program – Develops and maintains continuity of NOAA’s Priority Mission Essential Functions and the supporting activities and capabilities; – Coordinates and interfaces with Dept. of Homeland Security. 17

Strategic Disaster Preparedness The NOAA Emergency Response Program – Provides integrated NOAA information and support for emergency response; – Supports effective NOAA responses to hazards threatening life, property or the environment through training for, integrating, evaluating, and improving NOAA response. 18

NOAA Coordination and Views – Actively engaging external partners, including research partners; – Continuing integration across NOAA; – Addressing research requirements and research to operations gaps; – Integrating products & services; and – Developing new end-to-end capabilities. 19

Desired Outcomes – Provide the SAB an example of NOAA strategic thinking about disaster planning. – SAB recommendations on ways to build on successful SS 2005. – Open discussion with SAB on organizational, technical and strategic issues. 20

End of Presentation 21

Issues • Organizational – How do we effectively organize to implement National Response Plan requirements and other NOAA disaster response mandates? • Technical – What level of integration for which we should strive? – How do we formally identify and establish research priorities? – What are the most critical research to operations issues? • Strategic – How do we develop legislative and budget strategies for infrequent, high consequence disasters? 22